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February 19th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
Christof Lehmann (nsnbc) : Doctors Without Borders (MSF) calls for an independent investigation into the air raid against an MSF supported hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan and a hospital nearby. The NGO also urges the UN Security Council to assure the safety of medical facilities in the war theater. One problem with MSF supported hospitals, however, is that not all of them provide coordinates to the belligerent parties. Most MSF and MSF supported hospitals are in “opposition-held” areas. MSF largely operates in Syria without the mandatory permits from the Syrian government.
MSF supported hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan, Islib, Syria. Photo courtesy MSF.
The International President of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Dr. Joanne Liu, addressed the press at the Palais des Nations, Geneva, February 18, 2016. Addressing the recent air raid against the MSF supported hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan and the situation in Syria in general, Dr. Liu remarked that “Today in Syria, the abnormal is normal. The unacceptable is accepted”. Liu criticized what she described as relentless, brutal, and targeted attacks on civilians as the dominant feature of this war. Dr. Liu said: “Let me be clear; attacks on civilians must stop. The normalization of such attacks is intolerable.”
The press conference in Geneva was held to follow-up on the air raid against the MSF supported hospital in Ma’arat Al Numan, Idlib Province, on February 15. The air strike began reportedly at 9:00 a.m. and cost at least 25 lives. Among them were 9 medical personnel and 16 patients reports MSF, adding that another 10 were wounded. MSF quoted medical staff on site as saying that four missiles struck the hospital in an attack lasting about two minutes. Forty minutes later, after rescuers arrived, the site was bombed again. The NGO stresses that these secondary strike – in military jargon – are known as “double traps” that target rescue and medical personnel trying to save the injured.
Dr. Liu denounced this practice as outrageous and added that it didn’t stop there. A nearby hospital that received many of the wounded from the first strike was itself hit an hour later. This cynical destruction of hospitals and killing of medical personnel deprives entire communities of critical medical care, said Liu. MSF reports that it, in 2015, collected medical data from 70 clinics and hospitals it supports in Syria. More than 154,000 war-wounded people were treated. Of these, 30 to 40 percent were women and children. Liu reiterated the need for an independent investigation into the incident and stressed that the UN Security Council, and all the powers involved in the region, must do more. For the simple sake of saving lives. For the simple sake of stopping this agony.
The tragic air raid and its fatal outcome prompted a propaganda duel between the Pentagon and the Russian Defense Ministry and compliant media on both sides. Washington initially insinuated that the air strike had been carried out by the Russian Air Force while the Russian Ministry of Defense stressed that it had not carried out any operations near the targeted hospital. The Syrian Air Force also rejected that it should have targeted the hospital. To determine exactly who and what struck the hospital would require the release of radar data, operational data and an on site inspection that would have to include type of ordnance and the angle of attack. Such an investigation can hardly be carried out by the local community in a region that is being held by radical Islamist insurgents.
Why Would MSF and MSF Supported Hospitals be in the Crosshairs?
Doctors Without Borders / Medicins Sans Frontiers is carrying out vital operations on all continents. While most of its work brings relief to populations in conflict or disaster stricken areas, the NGO has also a long track record of questionable conduct.
Following the chemical weapons attack in East Ghouta, Syria, in August 2013, MSF would strongly condemn the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons. MSF would release details about the alleged number of casualties and other data, blaming the Syrian government. Later-on, MSF had to admit that it had no staff in Eastern Ghouta and that it solely relied on information from medical staff linked to an MSF supported hospital in the area. An investigation into the attack by nsnbc concluded that the attack had been carried out by Liwa-al-Islam, on orders of the recently deceased Supreme Commander of Liwa-al-Islam, Zahran Alloush. MSF “silently” retracted its accusations without arousing much media attention.
MSF has also been criticized for not providing the exact coordinates of its hospitals or hospitals in Syria that it supports to all of the belligerent parties. Other points of criticism are that MSF neglects its duty to acquire permissions to operate hospitals from the Syrian government and that MSF hospitals serve as de facto field hospitals for insurgents. In 2014 the government of Myanmar refused to prolong MSF’s permission to operate in the country due to what the government described as “MSF’s unethical conduct”.
The full and independent investigation into the air raid against the hospital in Ma’arat Al Numa, as Dr. Liu demands it, could not only determine into whose crosshairs the MSF supported hospital came; it could also determine why, and whether MSF may have contributed to the tragedy. Following the U.S. air strike against the MSF operated trauma hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, in late 2015, MSF stressed that it provided all belligerent parties with the exact coordinates and enforced a strict “no weapons policy”. An independent investigation may reveal whether or not MSF adheres to the same standards in MSF supported hospitals in Syria’s “rebel-held” territories.
CH/L – nsnbc 19.02.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/02/19/doctors-without-borders-syria-operation-in-the-crosshairs/
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